Amazon (s AMZN) is expanding the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which allows Prime members who own a Kindle device to borrow one ebook a month for free, to the United Kingdom, Germany and France later this month.

It is unclear how many people in Europe will be eligible to borrow ebooks from the KOLL. Amazon has not released Prime membership numbers in any country, but it seems safe to assume that there are fewer members of “Amazon Premium” in the UK, France or Germany than there are in the United States, and fewer still who own a Kindle. But the expansion of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library to Europe comes at a time when Amazon is heavily promoting its self-publishing capabilities on the continent. At the Frankfurt Book Fair this week, Amazon has been holding daily sessions for international audiences about how to self-publish their books on Kindle.

In the press release announcing the expansion to Europe, Amazon said it is increasing the pool of money that self-published authors are paid from to $700,000 for October, from $600,000 last month, and “a larger increase anticipated in November.” The company says “in September, authors earned $2.29 per borrow, which is more than many KDP books earn per sale.” (Of course, not all books are borrowed even one time.)

Amazon also says that “in September, KDP Select books that enrolled in August earned 77% more royalties from paid sales than the three months before they were enrolled in the program. This figure is conservative and only includes books that were available via KDP for the entire three months prior to enrolling in KDP Select.”

I find the “free” option (being able to put up a book free for 5 days of every 90) has been even more valuable than the KOLL. It certainly gives you some visibility that would take months to achieve . . . if you ever managed it. That being said, my books were borrowed over 200 times in September–the first month they were published. So that’s working for me too, personally–every little bit helps! (Although I do wonder how many people would buy instead of borrowing, if borrowing weren’t available–are these really incremental sales, or just a shift from “buy” to “borrow?”). Either way, I’ve been pretty happy with KDP Select so far.

On balance, KDP Select exclusivity isn’t worth it for self-publishers, given that the author is effectively killing their ranking on other stores, rather than just suspending it, which would be bad enough. I don’t think many self-publishers realise this, or the potential for damage.

Is this purely an opinion, or do you have any facts to back it up? If I give up $50 in sales at other sites to boost my Amazon take by $100, then it would be a smart idea. If I give up $100 in sales at other sites to boost my Amazon take by $50, then it would be a bad idea.